Sketch 31

For today's card I wanted to take this weeks somewhat more complicated sketch (or at least it seemed like it to me haha) and simplify it.

I used a kraft card base and then matted a piece of Frosted pattern paper with colonial white and wrapped it with some hemp baker's twine. I popped it up on some 3-D foam tape. Then I cut a 1 3/4" colonial white label shape from Artiste and a 2" kraft label shape from Art Philosophy. I stamped D1560 Holiday Tags label shape (no I did not cut the shape at the recommended size) in 2nd generation Saddle ink and the sentiment in 2nd generation Juniper. 

You can find all the products I used HERE.

I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Santa Baby - Sketch 30

I have to tell you when Michelle sent me her hand sketched version of this as a scanned picture of it I opened it and it was sideways. The card I made is what immediately came to mind and I had a lot of fun making this one. 

It is an A2 gate-fold card in Cranberry cardstock that I took some scissors (gasp... I know.. I so very rarely cut anything by hand) I cut the top into a heart shape leaving the sides intact at the folds on each side. then I cut off the bottom corners rounding a bit rather than simply cutting straight and lastly leaving a little of the folded edge attached at the top and bottom I cut away some of the middle of each side of the card.

I stamped the swirls from Love Life in versamark and heat embossed them with Winter Wonderland embossing powder (this powder has silver glitter in it but you can't see it at all in the photo). I then took a liquid applique pen and drew on the edges of the bottom and the top, waited for it to dry and then heated it so it would puff up. I used my crop-o-dile to make the lacing holes on the card edges where they meet in the middle (I held them together and punched both at the same time so they were even). The ribbon is laced as 2 separate pieces going only on one side with each piece and then tied inside the card on the bottom and outside at the top. I did it this way so the card could still easily be opened.

I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Sketch 29

Well, I had a lot of fun making my card for this sketch.

I have been watching Lindsay from The Frugal Crafter do a bunch of watercolour stuff lately (go check her out, she has some awesome tutorials!!). Anyways, I absolutely love watercolour but only ever use my watercolour pencils for it and really wanted to paint. My kids also wanted to paint so I got out their watercolour paints.. you know the kind, the cheap ones that you get all the little discs of paint in a plastic case with a paintbrush in it from the dollar store?!

I had a whole bunch of these card fronts already stamped and embossed with the Jumbo Zinnia from Stampendous sitting out on my table from a recent craft room clean up I did and decided to paint with my kids. YES this is done with those cheap paints and YES I used the cheap crappy paintbrush that comes with them to do it. :)

As soon as I finished it I knew it was going to be used for this weeks sketch. I grabbed a scrap piece of Cranberry Cardstock and some of the Ruby Chevron Ribbon. The Chevron Ribbon actually comes white and ruby chevron which looked way too stark on this so I simply painted it with the same grey that I used around the outlines of the flowers. I grabbed a bunch of buttons from the Red Button Assortment and stuck them on. Voila. I am in love with how it turned out. I hope you like it too and are inspired to go craft with your kids (or if you don't have any maybe try out some cheaper supplies that you can come across very easily).

Speaking of crafting/playing with your kids... I have some awesome pics to share with you all from some crafty time I spent with mine as well as some videos (you may have already seen the videos on my youtube channel). C'mon back tomorrow and check it out!

Right now you should head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Blog and see the rest of the Design Teams creations using this weeks sketch HERE.

Also, check out the actual sketch this week and the entries so far by clicking HERE.


Products Used:

Sketch # 29	Black Embossing Powder	Versamark Stamp Pad	Cranberry Cardstock	White Daisy Cardstock
Craft Heater

InLinkz.com

Sketch 27

For this weeks sketch I wanted to make a card to give out to all the veteran military personnel we know as well as put a few in my purse for when we go out as I like to give these out to the veterans that sit giving out the poppies for Remembrance Day as well.

I was so happy with how this turned out I decided I will also use these as thank you cards for all of the wonderful people who have donated their beautiful handmade cards to "Sending Smiles for Soldiers" a group I've started where I have been collecting cards and sending them to various military bases within Canada for them to send to their deployed troops. These cards are blank so the deployed military personnel that receive them can use these cards to send home to their friends and families. If you are familiar with Operation Write Home in the US this is essentially the same thing as that but for Canada.

I used kraft cardstock and some Tommy B&T paper. The strip across is the zip strip off the edge of the Tommy paper. I cut the ribbon using the Close To My Heart Artbooking cartridge at 1.75" using real dial size and the stamp I used is called Band of Soldiers from Deep Red Stamps (use the link by clicking on the stamp name and Stampers Best will donate $1 to Operation Write Home which is the US version of what I'm doing with Sending Smiles for Soldiers). I stamped it in Chocolate pigment ink and distressed the edges of all the layers with the same chocolate pigment ink.

Now, I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE as well.

An extra shout out to Stampers Best for supporting our heroes by donating $1 of all of the proceeds from the stamps in the "Operation Write Home" section of their website to OWH. I can only hope that some day what I'm doing here in Canada will get big enough for a company like this to make stamps for us to uses here in Canada as well. 

Sketch 26

I actually have 2 cards for you today using this weeks sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

I had one made but wasn't 100% happy with it and had an idea in mind for the second but it got left really late and my little guy has been sick the last couple days so I've been busy with him. I stayed up late last night to finish the second card to have it posted for you today but it just would not photograph for me without some natural light. That said, I will share my first card with you and promise to edit this post later today with the second card I made as well.

This is only the first card... but I couldn't decide on whether or not it should have a sentiment so I made one of each...apparently I am very indecisive lately eh?!

With a sentiment added

No  Sentiment like the sketch

This card uses the CTMH Artbooking cricut cartridge for the overlay and the card base behind it was made by cutting the same overlay in a different size and using the piece of paper I cut from for the one I actually used as a mask I laid the different sized one over it and sponged some crystal blue ink. I also masked off where the overlay went after I added my overlay and sponge whisper ink on. I could have achieved the same effect by layering some whisper cardstock and then patterned paper (or a piece of white with the sponging the overlay technique that I did) and I wouldn't have had to mask so much but I wanted to keep the weight of the card down so I did that by reducing the number of layers of cardstock I used and masking to produce the same layered look. The snowman is also cut from the artbooking cartridge. I hand drew his face on and his scarf is actually the scarf from one of the penguins in Wintry Wishes which is a hostess stamp set. The cartridge actually has a cut for the scarf and face included but I liked this striped scraf better an it fit so perfectly. I also didn't want to fuss with the little bits for his face so opted to drawn it on.

I tore a piece of white daisy for the snow and placed it in front of my snowman after lightly inking the edges with crystal blue (the snowman is inked with it too). I then added some streaks of glitz glitter gel to make the snow look more realistic.

After completing both this card and my second card I have actually decided I like this one better but you'll just have to wait until later today to see my second card to decide which one you like better for yourself. They are absolutely nothing alike as the second card is fall themed, not winter. LOL

Edited to add:

Here is the second card as promised. :)

This one uses our new glitter paper and a cut from the Artbooking cricut cartridge. I adhered it to a piece of Champagne cardstock and then used alcohol markers and a gold metallic marker to colour in the leaves. I used a chocolate marker to colour the tree trunk. The 'ribbon' is bronze shimmer trim. The card base is kraft cardstock.

Now, I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Welcome and Glittery Sketch 24

First I need to welcome you to my new blog.. so...

You will see things change here often for the next little while as you can probably tell the site is not completely finished. I did import all of my old blog content over to here so you'd be able to find all of the same posts you were able to see there. :)

I decided to switch over to this web address instead of my old one because I was having a really hard time with the number of letters in the address of my old one and making it fit on business cards nicely was nearly impossible. This new site actually uses my correct business name so it really makes a lot more sense anyways.

Now, onto what you really came here for today...

For this weeks sketch I actually left it to the last minute because of some issues I have been having with my shoulder I was not really up for using my arm to craft. That said I ended up making this after everyone else in my house was asleep so this meant no cricut (I know, tragedy right?!) and also that I wanted to use up as many pieces as I had on hand already done so \I could go to bed myself (oh and not wake everyone using the heat gun or simply walking back and forth in my craft area in the living room (which is also located directly above my husbands grandparents bedroom who were sleeping).

I like it but I think it's just missing some little detail and I can't figure out what... suggestions?

\
I had the main panel already covered in glitter and stamped using a burnished velvet technique.
I coloured some yellow in the windows as well as a little bit on the lawn being cast from the lights on in the house. A little red along the bottom edge of the roof line and that was it. Popped it up on a Pacifica panel. The sentiment I already had a bunch stamped and heat embossed in silver because I had planned to use them to replicate my card from Sketch # 23 for a friend who wanted some so I just matted one with foam tape for some dimension onto a pacifica piece as well. I punched a bunch of swirls from both silver glitter paper and Pacifica cardstock. I punched a bunch of snowflakes from the same glitter paper and white daisy and stuck those on but it just didn't add enough oomph... so I added some Base and Bling metal flowers for snowflakes instead.

This whole card is actually 5" x 7". I've been making mostly A2 cards lately as I've been making them to send to the deployed members of the Canadian military (more info on that HERE if you're interested), but since glitter is not allowed on those cards I knew this panel was not going to be used for one of those so I thought I'd make a larger card this time.

Now, I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Celebrate Sketch 21

I have to say that I am very happy with how my card turned out for this sketch! I did have a bit of help though as there was a card class I took at Carousel Rubber Stamps back in 2010 that I absolutely loved! I wanted to recreate it but of course it used a punch I didn't own (and couldn't find), a stamp that by the time I decided I wanted it was no longer available and expensive shimmery paper..... You can see the original from the class here. Of course I was going through all the sketches Michelle had given me to digitize and came across this one and nearly fell off my chair as if you look at it sideways was perfect.... I guess it was time to try to create the same stunning effect using what I had on hand. The Artbooking cartridge and Create-a-shade Pearl Paint made this extremely easy and I'm really glad I waited so long as I actually like this one to the original as the Sentiment stand out more, and I didn't have to heat emboss and fussy cut out (by hand) the butterfly. Yay!

This first one show the colours the best and more true with the Celebrate sentiment but I adjusted the colours a bit in the Remember sentiment one so you could see the shimmer that the pearl paint mixture adds better. 

I used White Daisy card base and for the top rectangle mat. The rest is all Colonial White that has been sprayed with a mixture of water and Pearl Paint. I am in LOVE with Pearl Paint for many techniques but this is by far my favourite!. :) I also sprayed some of the pearl paint mixture on one of my teflon craft mats and then stamped a swirl from Love Life in it and onto the top white piece randomly to add a bit of shimmer there as well and to provide some flight paths for the butterfly. I don't think you'll be able to see that in the photo though so you'll just have to trust me on that one. 

All the pieces (border, Sentiment and Butterfly were cut from the new Artbooking Cricut Cartridge. 

The ribbon is just some sheer ribbon from my stash that I got at Michaels when it was on sale.

Now go check out all the rest of the Design Teams wonderful creations this week (as well as the Top 3 from last week) HERE.

Also, if you'd like to play along with this weeks sketch you can find it and the link up for it HERE.

Products Used:

Sketch 20 Peace

I actually intended to share a different card with you for this sketch but it never got finished as it's been another crazy week in our house. Keep an eye out though as I really want to make the other card I had in mind so I'm sure you will see it show up here eventually.

I had also made this card which is a variation on a card I had made a year or so ago at a local craft store that is now close unfortunately. I switched out some of the colouring and what I used for the colouring as well as popping a few squares up with dimensional adhesive.

I am on a search to find the name of this stamp for you but it is one of my older non-CTMH wooden ones and the name of it has worn off so if any of you recognize it by all means please let me know the name in the comments. I will find it though as I am determined and will update the post when I do. :)

Now head on over to see the rest of the design teams creations this week and check to see if you made top 3 or not by clicking HERE.

You can also go directly to this weeks sketch and link up your own entry by clicking HERE.

Lovely Sketch 19

This weeks sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge was provided by one of our fabulous Design Team members Carrie Wright.

I decided to stick with the heart shape she used in her sketch and with a little help from some white embossing powder, Laughing Lola Paper and D1571 Sweet & Lovely which is one of the stamp sets that comes in the Artbooking Cricut Collection Bundle I came up with this card.

The strip down the left is just the zip strip on this paper which I just cut my piece for my card from that edge of the paper to include the zip strip.

Now please head on over to Atlantic Hearts Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the Design Team came up with this week as well as the Top 3 from last week by clicking HERE.

You can enter this weeks challenge and see the original sketch HERE.

Sketch 17

Today's card is SUPER simple since I had a much more elaborate card made but in the process of plugging in the camera to charge so I could take the picture I knocked my water over onto my card. I did not have time to re do the elaborate version for you so I did up this quick little 3x3 note card using Sketch 17 from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

This card uses cocoa ink on desert sand cardstock and this months Stamp Of The Month which is FREE with any purchase over $50 this month.

Please go check out all the other great creations by our design team using this weeks sketch HERE.

Happy Birthday - Sketch 16

I had to make a card for my little cousins 1st birthday... (Happy Birthday sweet girl!) on the weekend and as usual I fell back on the sketch for Atlantic Hearts as my starting off point. Of course after I finished the card I remembered I just got the cutest stamp set from the new idea book out of Jeanette's Archive so I pulled it out and made a second card with it.

Here's card #1

Here's card # 2

I honestly can't tell you which is my favourite as I keep going back and forth between them. They both use the new Babycakes paper with chocolate cardstock on colonial white card bases. They also both use the Babycakes Complements for the "ribbon". Oh and yes, they really are the same colour in real life but when I tried to correct the colour in the photo of the giraffe one it turned the grey background green when I adjusted the colour for the chocolate so I gave up and left the patterned paper as close as possible to the correct colour and I'll let you imagine the chocolate colour like you see on the teddy bear card on it instead of the darker almost cocoa colour that you see in the photo.

The giraffe card I simply stamped the sentiment from D1502 - Look Who's on the canvas Babycakes complements using the chocolate pigment ink from the basics assortment.

The teddy bear card everything is stamped with the pigment ink and then I used alcohol markers to colour in the bow, present and hat (by the way the present and hat are separate stamps in the set so your bear doesn't have to be birthday he can just be a bear with a bow on him). I used a blender pen with the chocolate ink to colour in the bear nice and light.

Now head on over to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog to see the all the awesome creations by our wonderful Design Team and to see who got Top 3 from last weeks sketch HERE.

Once you've been inspired I'd love to see you get brave and link up your own take on this weeks sketch HERE.

Products Used Today:

Beware Sketch 15

Make sure you check out the  rest of the Design Teams creations and Tops 3 from last weeks sketch (after you read my post of course or at least check out the card I made) so you don't miss out on some truly awesome creations! I am so very proud of our design team, they make my heart happy.

I always try to make cards for my sons preschool class and friends and family from both my kids (my youngest isn't in preschool or anything yet) for all the holidays.

This year I need to make sure I start them just a little bit earlier than usual to ensure they get made on time for each holiday.

That said when I was looking through my new Close To My Heart Artbooking cricut cartridge I saw a few images and had this weeks sketch in the back of my mind for this years Halloween cards. Now I know you're probably not ready to start your Halloween cards just yet but I bet over the next month you're going to start trying to (or after the fact will wish you started to so you didn't end up doing them last minute like I usually do) figure out what you're going to make so you can get all the supplies you'll need.

Check out what I came up with!

The card base is 6" square of cranberry cardstock and then the black is a 5.5" square. I used the Artbooking cartridge to cut the spider web overlay at 5.5" from whisper cardstock which I then sanded a bit and added some glitz gel randomly on it (not sure if you can pick out the glitter in the photo or not but trust me.. in real life the web has a definite sparkle). The spider was cut with the dial size set at 11.5" (this cartridge is set up so that the pieces will cut to make the layout pictured in the handbook by setting the dial size once and cutting all of your pieces hence the large dial size for this spider... I also could have used real dial size and cut it somewhere around 3" since that's how big he ended up). I cut the "Beware" at 1" with real dial size on (I think it would have cut this size had I just left my dial size on 5.5" and not used Real Dial Size as well).

I covered my spider with bonding memories glue using the jumbo glue stick and poured some black flocking on him. I love that this card has the fuzzy spider and the shimmery web. The spider is then positioned with the "Beware" first and then the word and spider are popped up together with foam tape.


Please head over and check out what the rest of the design team made with this weeks sketch as well as the Top 3 from Sketch 14 HERE

Products Used: